What is happening to starting salaries in this country?!

[user8636283901]

My starting salary in 2009 - so mid-GFC - was £30,000.

That was 16 years ago! And in one of the worlds worst global recessions since the Great Depression of the '30s.

I was casually looking at starting salaries in similar fields to mine and it seems like they're barely moved, all the while the cost of living is miles ahead of where it was 16 years ago.

Why are wages so low in this country?! Why haven't they moved up?!

Yep, broken homes, but also holiday lets, air bnb, second homes, empty semi derelict properties, empty homes for years whilst the owner languishes in a care home, increase in uni students needing homes in their uni town, etc. Lots of reasons for reduced supply and increased demand, all with immigration on top as the cherry on the cake.

Yes I’d say the housing issue has had such a terrible impact. And it was so predictable. Thatcher knew what she was doing and so did successive governments.

I wonder is there any party that is seriously trying to address and tackle these problems?

I am seriously considering leaving the UK by end of year. No kids yet so I can easily get up and go and live anywhere that’ll have me 😂

Governments and ministers always blame those before them.

I think people ARE making noise, they're voting Reform (and before that Brexit) as a protest vote against the historical main parties and are demanding something different to kick Tories, Labour (and Lib Dems) in the balls for their cock ups!

That's odd as I started at KPMG in 1997 on 20k. I was thinking that salaries haven't kept up at all last week too.

The ‘competitive salary’ thing drives me mad. Particularly when it’s on an ad from a company also proudly talking about its commitment to diversity.

DH is looking for a sideways move to bigger organisations and is annoying me as he ‘doesn’t like to ask’ recruiters for salary in case they think he’s only applying for the money. As he is, this is frustrating and I have found that no one minds being asked if you’re having a sensible discussion about a senior role.

I was offered £15 or £16k at KPMG Leeds in 2003. I went with Deloitte ar £1k more.

Because the richest people in the world are pocketing the difference. With higher house prices, inflated good services, bonuses, mahoosive loan interest and so on and on.
They have been pocketing it, not even providing the services we pay with our taxes, like doctors, hospitals, education, pharmacies, council services, transport... Name it, you will find plenty of examples where the people running the show have not invested in the buildings, equipment, staff... till the point everything is crumbling down.
We have allowed a law that forces all employees and employers to put a % of their wage into private pension schemes! Instead of going to the tax pot, as it used to. Yet, nobody complains or says a thing!

Above it says world and not country, because this globalisation idea BS leads to most of our money sent elsewhere and never returned.
If you think this money goes to provide a better living in the countries it goes to ( like China) for their citizens, I am not convinced of this at all. Yes, they get some, but I think the vast mayority goes to idiots who want to have their ashes spread in the moon!

We have been extremely quiet through all this, not a peep. I mean, the UK had the tories for ages! And sleep walked through the whole of it! Most countries I know of had exactly the same with different puppets to action it. Ours is Starmer et all at present. I see labour as less destructive than the tories, but not enough bold to start pulling that money back. We shall see what this flexibility between left and right yields us. I am starting to be concerned about them spouting the same shite as the tories....
The citizens of UK do not have a set of really strong leaders. We had none for ages now. We need some people with the real passion for it and brave enough. I am hoping for new centre parties to be created to replace labour and the tories. From working backgrounds, with real world experience and strong convinctions. But it is not happening....

When I started Grant Thornton in 1998 I think it was about £11.5. When I. Left KPMG in 2019 it was around £25k up to about £32k-£35k when qualified. However the bands above hadn’t increased much. They kept putting up the lower bands59 retain young people but this squeezed the uppper bands and led to lots of resentment over the lack of differentials.

In the public sector 35 hpw is often considered ft. I'd say you are getting a terrible deal in that case.

Yours was a graduate starting salary. He’s is a starting apprentice salary. That’s completely different and a clear indication of how salaries have not kept up.

It’s in every industry as well, I have a lot of author friends all over the world and I know book deals in the US for US authors seem to be more than US book deals for British authors. I get US has a bigger market but we are talking about books going into that same market with the same audience - the only difference is author residence /nationality. It’s like if they can pay you less they will.

Industries like publishing and many more thrive on silence and secrecy about how much authors are earnings , especially in the UK.

Maybe that is another thing we need to do in the UK more - talk openly about money.

I wonder is there any party that is seriously trying to address and tackle these problems?

Who will vote for it though? Look at the upset over means testing winter fuel.

am seriously considering leaving the UK by end of year. No kids yet so I can easily get up and go and live anywhere that’ll have me

I'm encouraging my dc to do similar. Much of the west has the ageing population issues but some countries haven't made it so hard for young people to get on.

Taxes are going to have to keep going up because the current model isn't sustainable

We have been extremely quiet through all this, not a peep. I mean, the UK had the tories for ages! And sleep walked through the whole of it! Most countries I know of had exactly the same with different puppets to action it. Ours is Starmer et all at present. I see labour as less destructive than the tories, but not enough bold to start pulling that money back.

I agree with many of your points - especially this! We have been so quiet and apathetic. I was actually surprised to see this thread because it’s like no-one is talking about it anywhere.

they're voting Reform

They want Reform because they would rather believe the lies & not acknowledge the truth eg everything is the fault of the boat people, get rid of them & then we can have well funded public services & lower tax 🤔. Sadly they haven't learned from Brexit.

We have been extremely quiet through all this, not a peep. I mean, the UK had the tories for ages!

I'm not young & actually am quite shocked how much young people have sat back & accepted their lot.

Love all the accountant examples…remember though, accounting is essentially an articled clerkship, so the starting salary is low because the candidate’s net present value of future salary increases once they quality. Except it really doesn’t all that much.

To continue the accountant example, senior and partner salaries really haven’t gone up in line with other countries, and in house roles are similarly persistently low even in senior roles.

As a harbinger of things to come, has anyone else noticed how private equity backed law firms are now hiring chartered accountants as well as lawyers where those professionals are self employed but get to use the company brand and insurance to justify charging clients more? I predict this will result in increasing fees, lower compensation to professionals (which used to be a path to wealth), and very profitable private equity investments (with very low taxes and usually with wealth going overseas with even lower taxes).

and yet nobody is doing anything about it at all.

Exactly, those people are part of the problem.
They’re often very single issue and would be happy to be even more financially worse off and have worse public services, as long as they know immigrations is down and immigrants are seen as lesser.

Farage and co are laughing all the way to the bank seeing these kind of people support them.

Name it, you will find plenty of examples where the people running the show have not invested in the buildings, equipment, staff... till the point everything is crumbling down.

yep & no consequences for doing so. Look at the water companies!

There’s a real problem in the accountancy and law fields. The experienced professional hires haven’t increased really (maybe a few k) over 20 years. When I first started most Senior managers had big detached houses, often then partner was stay at home. Kids in private school, company car. - none of that now.

Accountancy and law require very long hours, lots of stress, dealing with continuous changes, ever increasing paper work, over indulgence of technology sakes people. And everyone thinks you earn lots. There’s a real recruitment issue, I’m seeing more and more firms essentially swamped by inexperienced people, people with 20 plus years are desperately trying to leave, or so fed up they’re just not into it and can’t be arsed, silently quitting is a major issue.
the country needs accountants and lawyers they are integral to growth. Yet the changes and the regulation is just too much.

They want reform as they’re uneducated and don’t realise that a large part of the problem is structural. We’re propping up a very expensive welfare system which poor semi-skilled people are literally moving here to take advantage of (1 immigrant worker means they bring an entire family), poor native people having had far more children than they can support independently, and a lack of investment in education along with an attitude of contempt towards success (eg grammar schools receive less funding per pupil!) and crappy universities are funded whereas people should be trained on the job in a lot of cases.

In a recent role, there were multiple people in leadership roles who didn’t even have a university degree. They did fine because they’d been trained on the job; whereas in the US at undergraduate level students are taught relevant employable skills and enter the workforce able to do things that only their generation (and those who have reskilled) can. So they get paid more and they’re worth it. All this to say, I don’t see a path to prosperity here, and am sad to say that my children may have to leave to be able to accumulate enough wealth to return with financial security.

Glad the royal family were able to get world class healthcare without having done much work for it…I couldn’t even get a doctors appointment for my child last month.

It’s awful in certain industries. I started out in publishing - always had a reputation for being poorly paid - but it looks like salaries have barely moved since I went freelance nearly 20 years ago! Often the most senior editorial staff - which you will need a lot of experience for (probably 15 plus years in the industry) - will be on around 38-40k.

DH in the advertising industry and it’s not much better in terms of salary numbers not moving despite huge cost of living increases. 10 years ago his salary felt really decent and comfortable. Despite his rise in seniority, the numbers have barely moved…and we are really struggling. 😫

It’s a very valid point.

mu parents were teachers and could afford our current house with one FT and one PT and maternity leave etc.

2 FT teachers couldn’t rent and save up to buy and mortgage the same house now.

standard 4 bed semi in the suburbs!

It's well known that UK wages are pretty shit.

I think it depends on the sector. I’m in finance and we pay £36k starting salary for grads plus bonuses and health, life, critical illness insurance and generous holiday allowance and flexible working.

I started the same role 20 years ago on £26k.

So I guess it’s not a huge jump in 20 years but £36k seems decent compared to other industries.

I’m in the Creative industry and started on £20k in London in 1998, the designers now are just about on £23-24k. When I was there a 1 bed ground floor flat in Wandsworth was £85k. Still regret not buying it 🤣